Memory

RAM

1GB

Internal

8GB

Expandable

-

Messaging

Push Email

Yes

Text Messages (SMS)

Yes

Picture Messages (MMS)

Yes

Motorola Moto G Reviews

85/100

WhistleOut Review

"Despite its low-end price, its specs adhere to the mid-range genre. The 4.5 inch display has a 720p (720x1280) resolution, giving it 329 pixels per inch (ppi). That’s better than most mid-range handsets and sports the same ppi as an iPhone Retina Display."

" Listening to music on the Moto G is a pleasurable experience; audio quality is crisp and you won't be left wanting for volume, but even with a decent set of headphones, bass junkies will miss that rich, low-frequency range. "

"Colors are bright and look good from all angles and there is very little — if any — bleed. Moreover, the screen is is covered with Gorilla Glass 3, which means that the phone should hold up to scratches and light drops."

"Call quality on this version of the phone was about average in my tests. Earpiece volume gets plenty loud without distorting, though voices coming through the other line tended to sound overly harsh at upper volumes. "

"The Moto X is at its simplest a phone that feels out of date. Had it been launched a year ago we would have hailed it as a flagship phone with a battery life that couldn't be bettered, along with a range of simple features that made it truly practical and intuitive."

Average Score

(10 Reviews)

79/100

Motorola Moto G Review

The Motorola Moto G is a super-affordable phone that doesn’t
sacrifice too much in the way of hardware and user experience. Within its price
category it’s way ahead of the competition in power and specs. Best of all, it
runs the vanilla Android UI, meaning that you'll gets Android updates faster than just about anything else.

Design

3.5/5

When you're shopping for an affordable device you aren't necessarily looking for looks, but that doesn't mean you have to ignore style all together. The Moto G won't be winning any beauty pageants, but it doesn't look cheap either.

It combines a mild-mannered front with a matte-finished rear panel, neatly side-stepping the crummy glossy look of the quintessential budget smartphone. Unfortunately, it doesn’t boast the added
grip of soft-touch and is actually quite slippery in the hand. It’s comfortable
to hold, but you don’t want to cling on too lightly.

Unlike with its big brother the Moto X, there’s no Moto Maker
customization options for the Moto G. There are, however, colored ‘shells’
(read: cases) that you can grab from Motorola. These shells all look pretty
stylish, and you can even buy yourself a Moto G-specific pair of SOL REPUBLIC
JAX headphones to match or compliment your chosen case.

Under the hood

5/5

The real appeal of the Moto G is its value for money.
Despite its low-end price, its specs adhere to the mid-range genre. The 4.5
inch display has a 720p (720x1280) resolution, giving it 329 pixels per inch
(ppi). That’s better than most mid-range handsets and sports the same ppi as an
iPhone Retina Display.

The quad-core 1.2GHz Snapdragon 400 CPU is backed up by 1GB
of RAM. Compare that to the Galaxy S4 Mini – a much more-expensive mid-range
device that has a dual-core 1.7GHz CPU, 1.5GB of RAM and a lesser resolution
of 540x960.

There’s 8GB or 16GB of storage on the Moto G, but the 16GB version is
harder to find and more expensive. Unfortunately there is no MicroSD slot. In
another device this would caused concern, but for what Moto is asking we can
hardly fault it. The camera is either 5MP or 3.8MP, depending on what aspect ratio
you’re shooting in.

User experience

4.5/5

The Moto G comes running Android 4.3 out of the box, but you
should be prompted to update to 4.4 KitKat the instant you finish setup. If you aren't,
jump in to the settings menu, hit About Phone and look in System Updates. Make
sure you’re connected to a WiFi and have plenty of battery for the update. It’s
well worth it and will help your Moto G operate faster and more efficiently.

This might be a budget smartphone, but it operates like a
solid mid-range device. It’s relatively devoid of lag, handles most games without a
struggle, has a smooth user interface and has no problem with multitasking.

Unfortunately, the 720p screen lacks a little luster.
Colors aren’t particularly vibrant nor are whites overly pure. This isn’t
really an issue for a phone like this, but don’t go thinking that this 720p
screen will out-perform a Retina display or something found on a high-end device. It’s
good, but it’s not that good.

The only real trouble we had was when viewing the screen in
direct sunlight. The panel isn’t very bright. Set to maximum it was comparable
to other devices on around 70% brightness. It was usable, but stood out as the
low-point of the whole experience.

No 4G

A lack of 4G isn't surprising in a low-priced smartphone, but it seems out of place with the Moto G. The rest of the user experience is so atypically hassle-free that the lack of fast broadband is jarring to say the least. It's the only element of the Moto G rig that drags it back to the lower-end.

If you’re deciding between a mid-ranger and the Moto G then you need
to take this in to consideration. Most mid-range smartphones have 4G and, honestly, once you've gone 4G you won't want to go back. If you’re just comparing phones of a similar
price then you’ll have to decide between the general user experience of the
Moto G and faster internet on another, probably less-practical device.

Camera

3.5/5

The camera takes 5MP shots in 4:3 but defaults to 3.8MP.
Despite this low megapixel count the 16:9 shots turn out pretty well. They’re certainly
not going to be winning you any photography competitions, but as a
point-and-click shooter it’s adequate. Just make sure you turn on
the drag & drop manual focus in the camera settings, which for some reason is off by default.

Low-light shots are predictably pretty meager. Shots are quite
grainy and tend to be weirdly colorized. Images captured with the flash also suffer from noise, but at least they avoid the white-washed look of many smartphone
flashes.

Verdict

The Moto G isn’t perfect, but it’s the best phone
we’ve used in its price range. It’s smooth, faster than the competition, takes
decent photos and even looks pretty nice. Even if you don’t like the look you
can grab any one of a bunch of Moto Shells, which is a bonus. Most budget
smartphones only have one or two cases available, which can definitely cramp your style.

We can definitely recommend the Moto G if you’re in the
market for a cheaper phone. Even if you’re looking for something more up-market
it’s well worth considering, just so long as you remember that it lacks 4G
internet.